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Grizzlies Make Up for Lack of Flash With Grit

Memphis ousted the Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals.Credit
Jamie Squire/Getty Images

When Tony Allen was interviewed on live television after an otherwise meaningless midseason game in 2011, nobody could have known that he would wind up altering the culture of the Memphis Grizzlies, or that the words he delivered would soon adorn billboards and T-shirts, posters and towels.

“All heart,” Allen said at the time. “Grit. Grind.”

The Grizzlies are not the flashiest collection of superstars remaining in the N.B.A. playoffs. Far from it. They play a physical brand of basketball that borders on Greco-Roman wrestling, and it will be on display Sunday when they face the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.

In lieu of high-flying pyrotechnics, the team is best known for its grit-and-grind mentality, an approach that resonates in a lunch-pail city hard by the muddy banks of the Mississippi River. That a defense-minded player with a broken jump shot was its architect made the marriage even more authentic.

“Something happened with this team that spoke our language,” said Craig Brewer, a Memphis-based filmmaker who explored the city’s rough-and-tumble side in the 2005 movie “Hustle and Flow.”

“Before all this happened with the Grizzlies, Memphis was going through a little bit of an identity crisis,” Brewer said. “All these other cities were in the spotlight for being cool places to live. And then we were always on these lists for, you know, having a lot of crime and being really fat.”

He added: “I know the cliché thing is to say that it’s bigger than basketball, but it is. That Tony Allen line might be the best description of Memphis ever.”

As in all great redemption stories, Allen had to start from the bottom. He signed with the Grizzlies before the 2010-11 season after he helped the Boston Celtics reach the N.B.A. finals. But he suddenly found himself languishing as a seldom-used reserve in Memphis.

“My thinking was that this was the Memphis Grizzlies, so they needed all the help they could get,” he said in a telephone interview.

When the Grizzlies visited Oklahoma City on Feb. 8, 2011, Allen finally got an opportunity. Rudy Gay was out with an injury and O. J. Mayo was serving a suspension, so Coach Lionel Hollins pushed Allen into the starting rotation and had him defend Kevin Durant. It caught Allen by surprise.

“I was upset because I hadn’t gotten a chance to watch much film on Durant,” he said. “I didn’t complain. I just let it all out.”

In the Grizzlies’ 105-101 victory, Allen collected 27 points, shooting 9 of 12 from the field with 5 steals and 3 blocks. It was a monster effort, and a turning point for the Grizzlies. (Worth noting: Gay and Mayo are no longer on the team.) And yet Allen probably made his most important contribution during his postgame interview when Rob Fischer, the sideline reporter for the team’s television broadcasts, asked Allen about his effort.

“All heart,” Allen told Fischer, without hesitation. “Grit. Grind.”

At the time, Allen said, he was still feeling frustrated about his role. Nothing had ever come easily for him. Not as a boy growing up in a rough part of Chicago. Not as an injury-prone player with the Celtics. And not during the early part of his tenure with the Grizzlies, who seemed to have little use for him. Allen said he could still remember a game against the Utah Jazz in which Hollins played him a total of 23 seconds.

“Coach wanted me to go in there and get a stop,” Allen said. “I got a stop.”

So when Allen spoke with Fischer after the win over Oklahoma City, he had more to say. He gave a shout-out to his teammate Zach Randolph as he walked past and acknowledged Durant’s brilliance before highlighting the importance of defense. Allen, who spoke in a low growl, enhanced the entire interview by waving his arms like an orchestra conductor.

“I was just saying the first things that came to my mind,” Allen said last week. “It just related to how I live my life. I’ve always been having to use heart, grit and grind. It ain’t just no phrase. That’s my whole career. And if it wasn’t for that game, I’d probably still be buried on the bench.”

Pete Pranica, the team’s play-by-play broadcaster, was sitting nearby and had an immediate reaction: “This is television gold.”

The next day, Chris Vernon, who hosts a sports-talk radio show in Memphis, played the grit, grind audio clip for his listeners. And kept playing it, day after day. “Because I thought it was the greatest thing I ever heard,” he said.

Vernon, who had long considered himself an Allen fan, saw an opportunity to get the message out. He designed a T-shirt that featured Allen’s unsmiling visage framed by the words “All Heart” and “Grit. Grind.” When Vernon approached Allen with the concept, Allen was flattered: only stars got their own T-shirts.

“I don’t know if there’s an athlete who’d ever be more appreciative,” Vernon said. “Here’s a guy who was collecting cobwebs on the bench in Memphis.”

In late March, on the day Vernon received his first shipment of T-shirts from the manufacturer, he received a significant public-relations boost when Michael Heisley, who was then the team’s owner, wore one while he watched the Grizzlies play the Golden State Warriors from his courtside seat at FedExForum. At the time, Vernon was concerned that he might not sell enough shirts to recoup his investment.

As it turned out, Vernon had no problems unloading the shirts. Soon enough, the team adopted Allen’s bit of unscripted poetry on its merchandise. For Allen, the rise of the grit-and-grind mantra coincided with the growth of his own role. He was recently named one of the league’s top defenders for the third straight season.

“I feel like I helped trigger something here,” Allen said. “Teams know you’ve got to really come and prepare to play the Grizzlies now, because we’re going to put that grit and grind on you. Everything has changed.”

A version of this article appears in print on May 19, 2013, on page SP6 of the New York edition with the headline: Creating and Embodying Grizzlies’ Philosophy. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe